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One session at the 1999 National Symposium was devoted to the qualities
Mr. Schumacher and Dr. Clayton look for in a horse that can go to
the highest levels of dressage.
According to Mr. Schumacher, first he looks for the "middle" of
the horse to be at the point where the rear potion of the raised
spines of the thoracic vertebrae (which form the withers) blend
into the flat of the horse's back. This allows the rider to sit
over the horse's center of gravity. When horses are constructed
with the withers very forward, with a long back and a high croup,
it is impossible to sit with enough of the horse "in front of the
rider" and very hard to produce collection.
Mr. Schumacher also wants a horse that is "rectangular" in appearance.
From his chest to his hindquarters, he should be longer than his
height from the withers to the ground. His length should come, not
from the back itself being long, but from a big shoulder and from
big quarters. The legs should be relatively short with the joints
near the ground. This gives the horse a better natural balance.
"Long legged horses look very elegant," he observed, "but try to
ride a six meter volte with them!"
Ideally, the horse's neck should be set on at a ninety-degree angle
to the slope of the shoulder so that the horse can carry himself
"up" in front. Mr. Schumacher also looks at the connection between
the neck and head. The neck must not be too thick, which would impede
lateral flexion at the poll. The top of the first vertebra and the
occipital bone must be flat, that is, nearly at the same height.
If the first vertebra is higher, the horse will overflex too easily
and come behind the bridle. If the first vertebra is too low compared
to the occipital bone, it is too difficult to get the horse to be
round enough in his frame. You should also be able to fit your fist
in the space under and between the horse's jawbones, and there must
be enough space in the throatlatch area that the horse's ability
to flex is unobstructed. Check, too, Mr. Schumacher reminded, that
there's enough room in the horse's mouth to accommodate a double
bridle.
Not all of these features may be perfect in any given horse. If
they are not, the horse must have enough natural activity in his
hindquarters to help the rider to overcome these front-end conformation
problems when training begins.
Another quality of great importance is the horse's flexibility.
"We can't breed the gaits any bigger," Mr. Schumacher said. "So
in the past ten years more and more emphasis has been placed on
flexibility and temperament." With Sue Blinks's horse, Flim Flam,
he demonstrated that if he pushed lightly on the horse's back, the
barrel would lower. Pushing up on the horse's under-belly caused
him to lift his back. The tail, he showed, should also be moveable,
and the neck should be pliable and bendable from side to side.
Dr. Clayton said that to her, the sum total of conformation is
how the horse moves. However, there are conformational aspects that
she looks for which have a beneficial effect on soundness. One is
the slope of the horse's shoulder. Horses that have the top of the
scapula (shoulder blade) further back - resulting in more slope
to the shoulder - are better able to absorb concussion during locomotion
and stay more sound. This greater slope also puts the withers and,
therefore, the saddle further back, reinforcing Mr. Schumacher's
first point.
A second aspect is the length and slope of the humerus (the horse's
"upper arm"). This bone extends from the point of the shoulder downward
and to the rear, terminating at a point below the big bulge of the
horse's triceps muscle and about halfway across the width of the
leg. According to Dr. Clayton, for better orthopedic health, this
bone should be long and the angle relatively upright. In motion
the horse should have good freedom to be able to move both the bottom
part of his shoulder and his elbow forward and up.
In the hindleg, the feature that Dr. Clayton most associates both
with good movement and with soundness is the length and angle of
the femur (the horse's "thigh bone"). The femur should be long and
should slope forward from the hip joint to the stifle joint, allowing
the leg to come well under the horse in motion.
"In the lower limbs," she noted, "we tend to get carried away always
looking for perfection." Recent research indicates that slight deviations
from the ideal vertical alignment of the joints have not proven
to cause significant soundness problems. "In warmbloods about eighty
percent of the horses are toed-out…. I don't get too excited about
minor amounts of toe-ing in, toe-ing out or 'bench knees,' where
the cannon bone is offset to the outside of the radius," Dr. Clayton
said.
"In dressage horses," she added, "being a little close in the hindlegs
is often a good thing. When the horse is moving, the hock naturally
turns inward and the stifle naturally turns outward. This allows
the hindleg to clear the horse's barrel. If the hocks are a little
more in, this gives the horse more clearance between his stifles
and his barrel in the lateral movements."
Looking at Flim Flam, Dr. Clayton smilingly observed that he wouldn't
win a conformation competition. "He's quite narrow through the chest
and he toes out a little, BUT he's one of the best horses in the
world. Remember to look at the way a horse moves, not just how he
stands."
On the subject of temperament, Mr. Schumacher said that a good
dressage horse must be able to move well, but that in the upper
levels, up to two-thirds of a horse's success springs from "a will
to work, his natural sensitivity, and his inner tranquility."
"Normally those with a lot of inner tranquility are lazy, and those
with a lot of sensitivity are crazy and hard to work with." Finding
just the right combination is very difficult. Mr. Schumacher cited
Ideaal (ridden internationally by Jo Hinnemann, Sven Rothenberger,
and Gonnelien Rothenberger): "Ideaal was a horse with pretty bad
conformation but a heart - unbelievable - he won his last international
medal at the age of twenty. He really had these three qualities."
With a young horse, Mr. Schumacher says, "Look at their eye." Pointing
to Flim Flam, he said, "If I had seen him as a young horse, the
first thing I'd notice is his natural charm and his big eyes. This
is the feel that there is character there.… Watching a three year
old loose in the arena, what I want to see is a horse that wants
to contact me, not just one running around, crazy, with a stiff
neck…. Almost like a human being, they must look at you; they must
talk to you. In the long run this is what makes a better horse."
Mr. Schumacher commented that for International horses, it is important
to choose one that's big enough - one that makes a good visual impression
to the judges even from eighty meters away when he's at the far
end of the arena.
Dr. Clayton warned, though, that horses that are very big are more
difficult to keep sound. With very tall horses, the mass of the
horse increases more than does the strength of the supporting tissues.
Look for good-sized feet, she counseled, and ones which exactly
match each other. If one front foot is considerably smaller or narrower
than the other, it may signify a pre-existing problem.
For "normal" riders, Mr. Schumacher recommended that they find
a horse that's the right size and proportion for their bodies. Ones
that fill out your legs but are not so big that the rider's weight
goes unnoticed are ideal. The actual size isn't the most important
thing. Often a smaller horse with a nice neck who "carries himself
big," will make a better impression and still be easier to ride.
In conclusion, both Dr. Clayton and Mr. Schumacher agreed that
it is easy to pick apart any horse's conformation. But the overall
picture derived from structure, flexibility, and temperament, together
with his balance and how fluidly he moves, all play important roles
in determining whether the horse you're looking at can do the job
you want him to.
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Underlying
Relationships - Kyra's ABC's From the May 1999 issue